My Mom used to make these when I was a kid.  My 3 siblings and I would help twist the dough and add the sprinkles or, if I'm being totally honest, fight with each other until they came out of the oven then stuff our faces.  The recipe is from a neighbour but I've tweaked it a bit to avoid using artificial food colouring, which as you know, is the devil.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Soft Butter
1/2 cup Shortening (I never claimed these were healthy!)
1 cup Icing Sugar
1 Egg
1 1/2 tsp Almond Extract - don't be cheap and buy artificial.  You will taste the difference.
1 tsp Vanilla Extract - again, the real stuff if you please!
2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Cocoa
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
Loads of Sprinkles!



Combine shortening, melted butter and icing sugar.


Beat ingredients until completely smooth.



Slowly stir in the flour with your Mother-in-Law.  This is your cookie dough so it needs to be thoroughly mixed.  Split the dough in half and put in a separate bowl.



Here is where I diverge from our kindly neighbour's recipe.  Her version calls for red food colouring in half of the dough so the candy canes are red and white.  Since red food colouring is now on the Naughty List, I made the other half chocolate by combining cocoa powder, brown sugar and a bit of water in a measuring cup, stirring it into a paste.  The paste is then added into 1/2 of the dough to give it a nice chocolatey colour and taste.  If your chocolate paste is too watery, add more cocoa because the dough needs to be firm enough to work with.



Take a small piece of each colour dough and roll it in your hands forming strips.



Carefully twist the dough into the shape of a Candy Cane.  If you have clammy hands, this may not be the task for you.  Ask someone with nice dry sandpaper like hands (such as myself) to help you out because the dough is a bit greasy and I don't want you be to upset with me.  Remember, it's not the healthiest recipe ever.



Place on a cookie sheet.  You really don't need to grease it.  Take a moment to admire your handiwork, since it took you an hour to make those *&%# candy canes.



Decorate liberally with sprinkles and whatnot.  You can also use crushed candy canes if you want to be extra festive.



Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes or until they have a hint of golden brown.  Eat a few, then give them away to people you love.